Ok here'* the scoop. Ben'* car is due for a Dyno tomorrow in Ohio at 6PM. Here'* the problem. He is losing coolant somewhere.

Lets get all the things out.
#1, had a leak when we put the timing cover back on after advancing the cam. It was leaking from a bolt hole in the front cover. So we pulled it(again, retorqued it, leak goes away.

#2 Now losing coolant at a significant rate. No drips on the floor under the car, no noticeable leaks around the engine. The only thing we can conclude is that either the sleeved UIM or the new aluminum lower intake gaskets are leaking. He had a CEL that said Misfire Cyl #1. That kinda sorta rules out the leaking around the UIM sleeve because that would go into #5 and #6(being closest to that possible source). My thought is that the aluminum lower gaskets didn't have enough give to let the milled intake sit down on the milled heads properly and let the coolant ports seal on it. There is NO coolant showing in the oil(drained today and refilled oil after hard running and it was not milky. overflow tank had emptied out at that point.) So pitch some ideas at us because we gotta get this beast roadworthy for tomorrow morning. It'* an 8 hour drive(or so). I'm off to Ben'* to take a look myself(all information was given to me over the phone). Try calling me on my cell if you have any suggestions. 563-506-2327.

Check the water pump vent hole, if the shaft seal is toast it will leak a considerable amount without any real signs. I lost about about 1/2 gallon on a 40 minute highway drive before replacing my pump.

HTH.

Cheers,

If I had to guess, I'd think there was an LIM gasket problem.

Ummm...IIRC, some of the bolts need to have sealant applied because they go into coolant passages. I think that is true of some of the water pump bolts. Let me check my '95 FSM for you.

yup, FSM says to use thread sealant on front cover bolts and torque to 22 ft-lbs.

Pull the plugs, turn over the engine. Any water in cylinders will come out and be obvious.

Pull oil pan drain plug and drain one quart of oil. Coolant should drop to bottom of pan and be obvious from first quart drained.

The drop in coolant you are observing could be normal depletion of air pockets upon start up.

If there is no coolant in the cylinders and no coolant in the pan, and no external coolant leak, it is unlikely you have a leak.

I would add sealant to those cover bolt threads.

Well. I talked to Bill Buttermore tonight, as did Ben. Couple times on Bens part. Conclussion..... We aren't certain. But this has been a night from hell. Where to start?

Ok, after talking to B.B. and having already torn down the engine to the lower intake, we pulled it off, spilled no coolant by some miracle, and inspected the LIM gaskets. Everything seemed to line up. So we reinstalled the lower. Inspected the UI gasket and noticed a rip in one of the throttle body coolant passages. Doesn't make sense why the bloody thing would mis on #1 and what #1 plug was cleaner than the rest(maybe a poor porting job on my part?). Anyways. So we had no UIM gasket? WRONG! Someone trashed the one that we had taken off on the weekend and it went out Monday, but I, being a pack rat, had not only a 1 year old UIM gasket, from when we did the head/cam stuff swap, but two of the older style LIM gaskets!! Decided not to use them and take our chances with just the old upper gasket. Noticed it had a mis shaped port on the TB coolant passage too.. Black RTV to the rescue! So we continue assembling. Put everything back on except the intake tube, and hooking up a few wires in front. Filling it with coolant. "Hey, what'* that dripping under the car?" OH NO! The LIM is leaking from the crossover tube! Crap!! We didn't have a spare. Assuming all we would need was a o-ring, which we thought we lacked, we started packing up. "Wait, what about in that timing cover gasket kit?" OOOOH! Two new o-rings, ready for use. So we take the belt off, pull the alt, pull that tensioner assembly(drained coolant first). Lucky us! It was just the O-Ring going into the LIM that ripped in two. So we put the new one on the end that goes into the LIM. Hosed it down with silcone spray. Pops in like nothin! So we go back to assembling. Tensioner/alt reinstalled. Begin plugging in stuff. Got most wires hooked up, putting on vac lines. SNAP!(at this point we've succumbed to Murphy'* Law) The coolant temp sensor broke off at the base of the plastic! Now we just about knew we didn't have an extra, and something told us that timing cover gasket set didn't have one either. Remember folks. This car is supposed to be going to Ohio tomorrow morning(8 hour drive). Sooooo.... call it quits? NO! Super Glue by Loctite to the rescue! It'* a low stress situation, why don't we glue it(BillBoost, you mentioned something about gluing in the name of performance, well we're gluing to get it to Ohio tomorrow, and that'* performance!). So here is what we had.

A simple coolant leak.

That became, a bigger coolant leak(coolant elbow)

That became, a bad UIM gasket

That became a coolant temp sensor problem.

We were waiting for it to explode when we started it because the night had gone soooo well. Ben is test driving it at this very instant to see if he'* still burning coolant. That will be the deciding factor in his Ohio trip. I hope we fixed it. We retorqued everything and triple checked it. Now I'm going to bed as I get up in three hours for work. Yay!

Sounds like a fun night. Been there myself..

It'* the couple of laughs you share that keep you going when it'* all coming apart like that.

Glue in the name of performance... me? ok I did JB Weld part of my BCA together back in Sept when that little vacuum port snapped after an already bad day.

Glad to hear it'* together....hopefully all is going good at this point.

Wow! What a night! I've gotta admire your tenacity and resourcefulness. Hope it stays tight for you.

Well the story from the battlefront is.... no dice. I want to cry now. Tracer dye is in order it seems, as this problem only started after the cam adjust and the EGR stovepipe setup. Grrr.... GRR!!! Thanks for your support though gentlemen. Truely appreciated!!

So that probably scuttles the dyno run for now, huh? That sucks...